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Arch partition is scary

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:30 am
by Jza
Ok there I said it, after nuking my data partition I have to admit that not only it is scary but confusing. The way arch guide u through the porocess of partitioning is a piain in the neck and a hassard. IT almost sound as if they did it on porpouse.

Ok thats my rant, and the reason is simple, why will they put partitions by the name of the system.

/dev/disk0/part1
/dev/disk0/part2
/dev/disk0/part3
/dev/disk0/part5
/dev/disk0/part6
/dev/disk0/part7
/dev/disk0/part8

Ok if this is not confusing then what is. I mean this process is after you arleady wrote a patition table isnt it that hard to show u the actual filesystem.

The confusing part with the list before is that there is only 5 partitions so where did this 8 come from. I would agree that there might be some hidden partitions but for god sake put at least the filesystem or the sixze of the disk.

Ok you can tell I just lost data.

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 7:32 am
by snarkout
If you have anything using devfs like that on your system, it's likely you're using an old version of the arch install disk. The latest image uses udev by default.

Re: Arch partition is scary

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:56 pm
by Gomer_X
Jza wrote: The confusing part with the list before is that there is only 5 partitions so where did this 8 come from. I would agree that there might be some hidden partitions but for god sake put at least the filesystem or the sixze of the disk.
A partition table can hold 4 primary partitions (1-4). To get more than 4 partitions you need an extended partition, which can then be divided into logical partitions (numbered 5-8 ).

So you have

Code: Select all

part1
part2
part3 (extended)
       /--------
       |  part5
       |  part6
       |  part7
       |  part8
       \--------
So you have 6 actual partitions. Partition 1 or 2 is probably swap, with the final 5 being actual data partitions.

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:36 pm
by Jza
But why it shows 8 when I just have 5 partitions through the whole HD (including swap)/

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:38 am
by Gomer_X
Read what I wrote again. Partition 3 holds partitions 5-8. You actually have 6 partitions.

1
2
5
6
7
8

That's 6. Note that there is no partition 4, and partition 3 isn't a data partition. Why you have 6 when you think there are only 5 I don't know.

Use fdisk, and have a look around. Your /etc/fstab should also give clues.